From Stephen E. Weil

“…a distinction… must be made between ‘outcomes’ and ‘outputs.’ Outcomes are those positive changes in its targeted audiences—those impacts, those hearts and minds differences—that are the museum’s ultimate goal. Outcomes are the realization of its institutional purpose. What a visitor learns at an exhibition, for example, is an outcome. Outputs, though, are what the museum actually produces in an effort to achieve those outcomes. The exhibition itself is an output. So is its catalogue. So are any accompanying lectures. In the museum’s public programs, outputs are what’s intended to trigger outcomes. In its supportive programs, outputs may have more importance on their own.”

“A Success/Failure Matrix
for Museums,”

Museum News, 2005

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